


By the Grace of Angels

by CastielsDemon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Nearly Human Castiel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-01 05:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10181285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielsDemon/pseuds/CastielsDemon
Summary: Castiel lost most of his grace when Metatron tricked him. The angels have been cast out of Heaven and Cas has found himself hunted by his brothers and sisters. Hiding in the bunker, he tries to help Sam and Dean Winchester on cases, but can he continue hiding when one of the brothers is severely wounded whilst out on a supply run?





	1. Chapter 1

Cas looked up from the lore book when he heard footsteps approaching quickly.

“Sam? What’s wrong?” 

“It’s Dean” Sam rushed, “he’s hurt”. 

Cas started moving before he even noticed the motions, it was like an automatic switch had been flicked on, making him move as fast as he could. Dean couldn’t be hurt; he just couldn’t be. Cas followed Sam back out of the bunker, trying not to panic at the unknown state Dean was in. 

They reached the sleek, black ’67 Chevy Impala in seconds; Sam pointing Cas to the back seat, there laid Dean, unconscious and barely breathing. Blood soaked the rear seat and his grey plaid shirt was now red. 

“What happened?” Cas demanded, “you weren’t even on a case!”. 

Reaching into the back seat, Castiel gripped Dean’s shoulders, he was becoming used to helping this strong, stubborn man get up. It all started with that one fateful mission to raise this mortal from perdition. He had seen men before, had experienced the best and the worst of humanity; yet he still found himself in awe of his best friend who kept putting his damned life on the line to save his brother or the entire world; yet shrugged it all off due to feeling unworthy. It was so painful to watch Dean Winchester hate himself and feel like a failure; to watch him be oblivious to all the good things he has done and all the people he has saved. Cas decided he was going to have to start forcing Dean to realise his self-worth, whether the damned fool wanted to or not. 

Sam rushed to Dean’s other side as Cas eased him out of the Impala; careful to not to knock his shoulders too much. Silently, the angel was berating himself for being stupid enough to be tricked by Metatron; without the majority of his grace, he was essentially mortal; and as Dean so eloquently phrased it, he was a ‘baby in a trench coat’ without his mojo. Cas was powerless to heal his friend right then. 

“Crowley happened, the bastard wanted us to do a job for him, we refused, so he set his pet hound on us. Those damn things are invisible and we did our best” explained Sam. “but the thing had already got its teeth into Dean before I cut its throat. I don’t think it chewed through any organs but he’s bleeding out. He may not make it.” 

Castiel knew what he must do, he would not be the reason Dean died; he would get some grace back or die trying; Dean had tried to lay down his life too many times for him, it was time to return the favour. He helped Sam get his brother into the bunker and onto his bed. Once Dean was set down; Castiel told Sam to watch Dean and call him if anything at all changes, that he had to leave the bunker immediately but would be back soon. Understandably, Sam gave him a confused look. Cas stopped to explain that he had heard on angel radio that angels would be in Lebanon, Kansas; that they think they’re getting closer to finding the fallen angel and that he planned to attack them and steal their grace. Unknown to these angels however, was that even a weakened Cass was still a skilled fighter. 

Practically running out of the bunker, Castiel pulled opened the car door and jumped in, putting his foot down straight away and spinning the wheels in the process. In their haste, they’d forgotten all about baby and left the keys in the ignition. Tracking the angels sent to kill him, he rushed through the early evening traffic, finally stopping in front of an abandoned warehouse. Angel blade at the ready, he got out of the Impala. 

The fallen angel planned to exit this building with more grace absorbed, stolen as it would be, to save his best friend. No more would he be useless and powerless to help the Winchesters how he used to be able to, before his wings snapped as Metatron sent him down to Earth. Weak and discovering the hard way that most of his powers were gone. Creeping forward, blade ready, he entered the warehouse and heard two voices. 

“He is not here.” Said a female. “We should go”. 

A male voice responded that he wanted to check the building once more before leaving, and that splitting up would make it faster. Castiel stayed still and silent, waiting for footsteps to signal that one was walking in his direction. Seeing his chance, he moved as quietly as a mouse the few feet to the door which led to where he heard the voices. There he stopped, silencing his thoughts before he could hesitate and avoid what he was planning to do. 

A tall male walked in, oblivious to Cas’ presence. Castiel side-stepped behind him; swiftly raising his angel blade to slit the angels throat; his grace began to seep out, not risking any being lost; Castiel stepped around him and absorbed all of the grace. He could feel the grace resettling within him, could feel the power coursing through his vessel. A blinding white light filled the cavernous space where he stood; bright enough to blind any bystanders. Restored to his full angelic power, albeit still with broken wings, Castiel ran back to the Impala; not worrying about the other angel. 

Following the same route back to the bunker, he returned as fast as he could. The car skidded to a halt, tires screaming against the road. Jumping out, Cas entered the bunker and sprinted back to Dean’s room. Sam gave him a puzzled expression but stayed silent. Praying he was now strong enough to heal him; Castiel put his hand on Dean’s head. The injuries were worse than he had anticipated but, thankfully, he had enough grace to heal him fully. Dean awoke with a gasp. 

“Dean!” Sam yelled, jumping in front of Cas to hug his brother. “You’re alive!”. 

Cas was overjoyed he was able to save his friend’s life, he smiled and then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

“Cas! Sam!” Dean exclaimed, jumping off the bed and trying to grab Cas’ limp body. Sam only just caught him before he hit his head on the concrete floor. “We got you.”  
Dark….so dark….

Cas began to stir; he was being shaken. Who was shaking him? Why were they shaking him? He didn’t understand what was going on. “Cas!” Dean, Cas thought, Dean’s awake, he’s healed. Cas felt happy at this realisation, opening his eyes, he saw Dean looking at him with a concerned expression. “What happened?” Cas muttered whilst looking around, he couldn’t figure out what was going on, he only noticed he was now on the floor. When did I sit down? 

“You healed Dean and then passed out, Cas” Sam explained from behind him. “We only just caught you before you hit your head on the concrete”. 

“What happened to you?” Dean demanded. 

“I stole another angel’s grace so I could heal you, you were nearly dead when I got back. I don’t know what happened next.” Cas went quiet for a moment as he realised what must have happened. “Did…. did I faint?” Cas looked at both Winchesters, Sam looked at his feet, silent and Dean nodded at him. “Oh, so that’s what fainting feels like.” Cas muttered quietly. Unsteadily getting to his feet, Castiel tried to focus on his vessel; checking to see it’s condition, he didn’t know if he had injured it when he collapsed. “I can’t sense the grace anymore. It’s gone.” The shock was evident on Cas’ face. Sam and Dean said nothing. "I didn’t think it would burn out so quickly, although there’s never been a case of an angel stealing another’s grace so I don’t really know what I expected.” Cas stumbled, “I need to rest.” Dean walked to his side and held onto Castiel’s arm to support him as he tried to walk toward his room. Cas was still surprised at the thought of his own room. Sleeping also amazed him, he now understood why humans slept so much. It must be nice to not have any thoughts or worries on your mind for a few hours every day. 

The brothers had given him the room when they had found him asleep on a bus, Dean could still remember the image of Cas sleeping, he had never seen him asleep before. They had been searching for him for weeks; wondering why he wasn’t just teleporting to the bunker, the sight of him asleep made them realise that something was off with him. An angel at full power needed no sleep. Dean helped Cas into his room and made sure he was on his bed before he walked back out. The soft snoring told him Cas was already fast asleep. “Sam…” Dean gestured for his brother to follow him as he walked into the library. 

Sam sat down as Dean poured two drinks for them, wondering what was on Dean’s mind; his brother wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. Sam knew he was worrying about Cas and angry about something. “What is it, Dean?” he asked. 

“It’s Cas, Sammy. We need to get his grace back. I know he only did what he did to save me but I know him, he hates killing another angel, even to save someone. If he keeps doing it, it’ll rip him apart.” 

Sam expected this, but, how could they? Castiel had said Metatron had used his grace as part of some spell. “Dean, Cas said himself that the grace Metatron stole from him was used in some sort of spell, there may not be anything left to get back. I know he needs his mojo back and we’ll do our best; but, you need to accept that it may all be gone.” Sam finished speaking and watched Dean carefully, expecting his trademark denial to kick in. 

“I know Sam, but we owe it to him to try. He’s fought for us, died for us, hell, he even rebelled against heaven for us!” Sam conceded, he still doubted there would be anything to find but, he agreed they owed it to Castiel to try. 

“Okay, where do we start?” He asked, “Angel summoning?” Dean nodded.

“We find out how to summon an specific angel, and we need to get to that ass-hat, Metatron. He’s the one who took it.” Dean started moving towards the store room where they had kept many of the angel lore books. They needed to start somewhere. Cas was not going to stay practically human, and he was not going to die trying to find his grace; he was taking a back seat on this one. Dean would do everything he could to ensure his best friend was back to full power as soon as he could. He would not lose another member of his family to monsters or supernatural creatures, he had lost too many, and Cas was family.


End file.
